Oh! This album is nice. Very very nice. Every single song.
Try All I’ve Got

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#6 Valtari – Sigur Rós

Ermm… It is Sigur Rós. Enough said.

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#5 Koloss – Meshuggah

If you search in the Oxford dictionary for the definition of “Thick”, “Bass” or “Heavy”, you will see yourself looking at a little picture of this album, Koloss.
Imagine a rain of sequoia trees, how would that sound like? Like this. DemiurgeAnd Koloss’ artwork is one thing to appreciate.

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#4 Coexist – The xx

…

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#3 Resolution – Lamb Of God

What have they achieved in their seventh studio album? Another masterpiece, once again. Seven albums released, keeping the same style, and not getting boring or repetitive is not something that every band can do. Resolution is fierce.
Favourite band in the genre.

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#2 Nocebo – Stam1na

I remember pre-ordering this album and waiting nearly two months for its arrival from Finland. I can say that this was my most anticipated album of 2012. The photos and writings in the album’s sleeve are way cool, and the short documentary making of, shows the whole creative process of the band together with Joe Barresi producing.
According to my Last.fm charts, i have listened to this album 1049 since its release, loosing only for my last and most favourite record of 2012…

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#1 Given To The Wild – The Maccabees

Given to the wild
Given to the wilder ways
While the ways of a child
Are whiled away

The end of September was coming closer, and with it, my travel to Berlin. Here is a short report…

Friday
Alarm goes off at 5:00, breakfast, last check-check and off to the bus station. Our bus to Berlin departed at 7:07, was still dark and the first lights of the sun were just appearing behind the buildings ahead. The journey took about 3 hours, circa 290km of fields and more fields.

Arriving in Berlin with a bright sun up but still quite chilly, we walked to the nearest S-bahn and learnt our way to the centre. For someone who is not very used to using subways and trains (a.k.a. myself), the S-bahn and U-bahn can be quite confusing at first, but with a little time and effort (and perhaps, a helpful iPhone app), things get less complicated.
Brandenburger Tor station was our starting point, from there we walked around most of the well known places but also the small weird looking streets.

Walking around Berlin and seeing all those things i have studied about at school, seen in books, watched on documentaries or films was quite an experience…

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Brandenburger Tor

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Unter den Linden

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Berliner Mauer

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Berliner Mauer

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Checkpoint Charlie

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Berliner Dom

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After around 6 hours walking and seeing things, legs were asking for a little rest, so why not take a nap on that nice and green grass in front of Berliner Dom? We still had 2 hours of waiting until we could check in at the rented flat through Wimdu, so we took the Berlin Bus line 100 which is the Berlin sightseeing tour for €2.30 and hoped to see some more things we haven’t before, but for some reason this one bus had to go a different way due to some traffic problems or something, still was a a good tour.

Back to the S/U-bahn and iPhone app, finding our way to the flat wasn’t so difficult.
Arrive > Eat > Shower > Sleep…

And well… Time was coming… Time to head to Wuhlheide to see some band called Radiohead and Caribou as supporting…
Getting there in good time so we could get a good spot. All in all, we stood up for around 5 hours, there was rain, rainbows and full moon… And Radiohead… Bloody hell. Was i Hyper?

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Kindl Bühne Wuhlheide

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Radiohead

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Radiohead

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Radiohead

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Woah! What an amazing concert… And setlist…

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Radiohead Setlist @ Wuhlheide Berlin 29-09-12 from setlist.fm

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SundayWaking up still in disbelief, got things ready and left the flat at the check out time. Back to Berlin’s centre, we dropped off at Potsdamer Platz station and walked around that area…

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East/West Division

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Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

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Just as you leave Potsdamer Platz station you can’t help noticing some quite high buildings around, and one of them is the Kollhoff tower. Paying a fee of €5 you get to go inside, use the fastest elevator in Europa, which goes 90 metres or 24 floors in 20 seconds, visit the cafe and have a really amazing panorama view of Berlin…

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Kollhoff Tower

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View of Berlin from Panoramanpunkt KollHoff Tower

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And as the sun was going down, we decided to spend the last few hours we had left at the cold shore of the river Spree.
Hopefully i will see you again Berlin.

After 2h45 minutes flying, i arrived in Hamburg, at around 22:00. Found my backpack, put my jacket on and went out to meet my friend who was waiting at the arrival. We took the subway and decided to stop a few stops earlier to see if we could find something to drink and spend some time. We dropped off at Altona’s station and walked around, i could not help noticing how silent it was, i mean, very silent. Maybe it was strangely too silent for me because i spent the previous 24 hours or so, inside airplanes and airports… Oh well… So we continued walking at a dry and chilled night (14ºC), nice sights, different airs, many people on bicycles, bus stops showing a countdown for the next bus… stopped for a mandatory Kit Kat Chunky break and as we left the shop, i sighted a few posters on a wall across the street…

Rock Spektakel, Grave, Birdy, Pothead…

That is how i found out what i would be doing on the following Saturday, Rock Spektakel, Skindred together with Smoke Blow and a lot of other bands, many local bands, and many i haven’t heard about.

I also spotted this, which i believe to be owned by my good friend and bandmate Sapo Sabido. 😉

Um Sapo sabido. HA!

So, next morning, waking up at 11am, seeing sunshine (not really, quite cloudy) for the first time in Hamburg, i had a lovely cold shower, had brunch, put some layers on and went off to the city centre with my friend and city guide, Neele…

*hasfau*

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Binnenalster under grey skies

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Pointy ends of Chilehaus

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Rathaus

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Rock Spektakel poster

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La Confianza

We walked around the centre and visited a few interesting places, went into the Rathaus which has stunning and very detailed architecture and massive old paintings inside, had a thunfisch sandwich at the Alster watching the angry looking swans going by and staring at your food, and then coming back and repeating the procedure until you either finish or walk away in fear. Also visited the Mönckebergstraße, one of the most busy streets in the centre of Hamburg, with many different sorts of shops, and street musicians…

Later in the evening, we headed to the Rathausmarkt where Rock Spektakel took place. Skindred was about to come up and the place was packed, got a good spot near the stage and enjoyed an awesome gig, with a remix of Star Wars’ Imperial March as intro. A couple of drunk german dudes pulled my dreads and asked if they were real and how long they take to grow, asked if they could feel them and it was quite funny to see their faces as i let them feel it and straight after i suddenly barked at their faces making them jump back frightened and laughing : )

Concert finished, subway back home… Tried to go to sleep but no luck, fell asleep at around 1:30 and there my cough and cold started. Yes, my first week was greeted with a cold running nose, and a dog-like cough : D turning the jet lag a little bit more challenging.

Next day, Sunday, and Woah! It was sunny, so we got on bikes and went out riding around 6km…

…down to the Elbe river and passing by this big and open park with ancient Ent-looking trees, the Jenischpark.

Jenischpark & Jenisch-Haus.

And finally getting to the Elbe, lots of people enjoying the, not so often, sunshine. Massive container ships coming in and out of countless harbours at the other side of the Elbe, tourists ferries doing tours… We got a spot near the Alte Schwede, drank some water enjoying the view and listening to some nice songs.

Elbe river and docks

Facts:
• Pedestrians/bike riders, do not cross the street when the pedestrian light is red, not even if it is 2 in the morning and it is cold and you can not wait to get home. You wait ;).
• Orange juice costs €3,20, and it tastes quite good, though, the amount served is very small. Kein Zucker, bitte.

This past weekend (20th to 22nd) i was visiting the city of São Paulo to attend to Steven Wilson’s last concert in south america for the Grace For Drowning tour. The last time i visited São Paulo was in 2004, for a tattoo festival, but somehow i don’t have many clear memories of those few days i stayed there, apart from seeing a lot of nice tattoos, great tattoo artists and meeting Derrick Green from Sepultura.

Arriving on late friday night didn’t give me much opportunity to walk around, instead, me and my travel mate Sapo, just hopped from one metro to another until we reached the house we were staying.

The next morning, woke up and looked outside the window to be greeted with a nice Paulista Sky…

Under that sky and a nice temperature of 17ºC, we decided to go out and have a look around at the few shops that remained open even though it was a holiday. We didn’t walk very far until our first stop to grab some coffee and head to Livraria Cultura. That’s where fun begun and that’s where we spent many hours of our day. Only there i realized it was Record Store Day and all records were on discount price, so i went on a hunt for some desired albums. An hour later and there was i, holding all these nice scented CDs, knowing i would have to leave some of them behind otherwise i would’t have any money left for the rest of the weekend. Ended up with these two gorgeous albums.

Opeth's Heritage & Radiohead's Amnesiac

Our next stop was at Apfel, a cosy vegetarian restaurant that offered many varieties and a friendly price. With our bellies filled with leaves and veggies, we went for a quite long walk at the Avenida Paulista seeing all sorts of things and people while a light rain poured on us. This same rain kept us company until it was time to head to the venue where the concert took place.

Walk, metro, walk, walk and walk a bit more, and there i was, seeing THE Steven Wilson and his amazing band performing a brilliant show a couple of metres from me and a not so crowded venue.
As i entered the venue, Bass Communion’s 16 Second Swarm was already playing through the quadrophonic sound system while Grace For Drownings photographs were being projected on the curtains just before the band starts…

They performed many songs from both, Insurgentes and Grace For Drowning albums, including the 23 minutes long Raider II, Abandoner, No Twilight Within the Courts of the Sun, Harmony Korine, Postcard, and my Grace For Drowning favourite, Like Dust I Have Cleared From My Eye. Also a brand new track entitled Luminol. As for the first encore they played Get All You Deserve wearing these really cool masks. And for the second encore, Steven came back alone to have a little chat with the crowd and perform Lazarus and Trains to leave me even more euphoric and in a state of disbelief.

When he definitely left the stage and the curtains went down, we listened to more Bass Communion to clean our ears, this time with A Grapefruit in the World of Park. Amazing concert.

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Sunday. More rain. Long wait for the bus. And fly back home. A great weekend.

Sapo e Iolanda

Thanks Iolanda for hosting and taking us around, was great seeing you and Sapo for making me realize i shouldn’t miss this concert and for the great company.

After two months of it’s release, Stam1na’s Nocebo is finally in my hands. Since it was my first time ordering something from Finland i was expecting it to take quite a while to get to Brazil and i wasn’t wrong, to be more precise, it was pre-ordered on the 11th of january through the finnish website recordshopx.com and arrived a little over two months of the date it was sent. But nothing wrong with that because every single day of waiting was worth and when it was delivered i literally dribbled of excitement. Nocebo is a beauty.

Since the day of pre-ordered, i told myself i wouldn’t listen to any Stam1na song until the CD was in my hands, and so i did, apart from watching the awesome video for Valtiaan Uudet Vaateet and listening to another song on radiorock.fi, which i couldn’t figure out the name in between all those finnish words, but now i see it is called Puolikas Ihminen, already a fav.

In this album i felt that Stam1na experimented even more than usual, especially with sound effects, but still kept their distinct identity. Producer Joe Barresi certainly had a great influence in these experiments letting the band go beyond the ordinary and forcing them to be a little crazier (if that is actually possible). Also, for the first time (if i am not mistaken), Stam1na features a track in english, Nomad, a great and fast paced song with a catchy chorus and a solo that reminded me of Steve Vai. Ei Encorea is another great track that i got hooked immediately, together with Rabies (a neck breaker), Puolikas Ihminen and Valtiaan Uudet Vaateet, which, the chorus gives me goosebumps every time i listen, for some reason. I didn’t have time (courage) to translate the lyrics yet, that will take a while, so i don’t know what they are about. The CD booklet features the lyrics but also some interesting writings in english, random quotes from each member of the band and some very nice photographs…

"Why remove a tattoo? Paint yourself with colours, tones, contrasts. Offer the grey world some medicine"

Since the first listen what caught my attention the most was the playing of the bassist, Kai-Pekka Kangasmäki, dropping some fierce bass riffs and lines, filling the spaces with interesting ideas and making them very noticeable, Puolikas Ihminen as a great example. Keyboard player, Emil Lähteenmäki, also done a great job with the chickens and ambiences.

I am honestly very pleased with this album as a whole, Stam1na done an excellent job together with Barresi. Nocebo is definitely going to stay on my playlist for months. Give it a try.